Today there is a soccer match between Algeria and Egypt and it happens to be extremely important because whomever wins will end up going to play in the World Cup games. The previous match between the two countries held last week produced Egypt as the winner and with that outcome all hell broke loose.
An angry Algerian mob attacked the offices of Egyptian telecommunications group Orascom in Algiers, which was filled with Egyptian employees, after their national football team lost to Egypt in the World Cup qualifiers on Saturday.
The police transported the employees and their families to safety. But news agency Agence France-Presse reported that all flats in their residence were ransacked and a car was set on fire.
“More than 70,000 mobile phones with a value of five million dollars were destroyed or stolen,” Orascom Telecoms Algerie (OTA) communications chief Hamid Grine told AFP. He said between 3,000 and 5,000 rioters were involved.
The rally in central Algiers began with fans chanting “One, two, three, Go Algeria!” as they thronged Air Algeria’s city-center offices trying to get tickets to travel to Sudan for the World Cup football qualifying match against Egypt in Khartoum on Wednesday.
Algerian and Egyptian football fans have a long history of violence. In 1989, when both teams also faced-off for a World Cup qualifier, riots marred Egypt’s victory. Algerian player Lakhdar Belloumi was tried and sentenced to prison in Egypt for injuring the Egyptian team’s doctor with a bottle after the match.
Twenty Algerians were injured in clashes in and around Cairo after Saturday’s first round match, according to Egyptian police.
Algerian press reports alleged that an Algerian man died in clashes with Egyptians after the match. However, the Algerian Ambassador in Egypt Abdul-Qader Haggar denied on Sunday claims about deaths among Algerian fans in Cairo Stadium in a statement to Radio Algeria Internationale.
- The Observers, France-24
Car fires,beatings,riots,verbal assaults,physical retaliation – you would assume these asinine actions were the result of civil war but no,because one group of deranged individuals is upset over the outcome of a soccer match they are attacking another group of deranged individuals who are equally upset over the outcome of a soccer match.
Call me cynical if you like,but I contend that this nationalist furor exemplifies the general state of the Arab community – those of whom are not directly suffering occupation,as of yet.
While the Algerians and Egyptians were busy setting cars on fire and beating one another to a pulp over the fruition of a soccer match their brethren in Gaza were starving,and their brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan were being tortured,raped and shot at.
As I sit here and type this it has come to my attention that Algeria has won it’s place to play in the World Cup and this has set off wildfire in Egypt, specifically from nationalist spectators.
My abysmal apathy over a soccer game could be due to the fact that I am not a sports fan or it could be because I feel that other things should be what spike human dignity.
To put it bluntly: There are more important things the Egyptians and Algerians should be worrying about and there are more important ’causes’ they should be fighting for,together.
The history of the Arabs has been diluted with perverse cowardice and insensible vehemence for items which hold no importance; Algeria winning a spot in the World Cup will do nothing to the Egyptians or the Algerians in the long run,nor will it cause any abiding compensation.
It is time for the Arabs to get their priorities straight.
